


The Book of Magick

by infinitemoths



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Fae & Fairies, I just really like faerietales, Multi, Other, multi-chapter, this may or may not get big if I can get my head out of my ass
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-09
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-13 23:26:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7142504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infinitemoths/pseuds/infinitemoths
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Magic lives in the world around us, the issue is whether or not we choose to see it.  Once it is experienced, however, it's near impossible to forget.</p>
<p>(based loosely around the popular kylux fae au)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Earth

> "But the Courts aren't places humans are supposed to be, especially the Unseelie Court. Most faeries won't even go there."
> 
> **\-- Holly Black, Valiant**

If there was any other way to start a faerietale, it would be with fae.  Finn was victim to just that.  He was a young man, rather built and tall, dressed in flowers and a material akin to spiderwebs.  At one time, he assumed this was a proper way he dressed, but it felt uncomfortable in the very least.  When he woke up, he knew nothing.  There was nothing in his mind but the cold, dewy grass beneath him as he jolted awake.  Scattered little ideas of large creatures, definitely nonhuman and each more disgusting and cruel than the last.  He remembered being a child, no older than six as he was lured away from his backyard into the woods behind them by the strangest creature of them all…

This creature was only terrifying in how human it was, how friendly and alluring it seemed to him as a child until it swallowed him.  Finn shuddered at the thought, pretending to brush it off as false memories.  The only issue with false memories, is that he had no idea what the real memories were.  Images of twisted trees and darkness, of strangely thick black blood and jeers of pointed teeth.  There were no humans in his memories, or at least very few.  The only one who seemed human was the Monster, although it was adorned in feathers.  Nothing else made sense to whatever rational part of his mind there seemed to be left.

No matter of what happened, no matter where he was, he needed to find where he used to be.  The woods was no place to find out who he was, or where he came from.  It was strange to think he had nothing, but that gave him more room to build.  He was going to find his family, find his friends, find out who he is and make it out as a better person than anyone could ever believe.  He just needed a way out of here.  In the very least, it was still daylight.  The light meant protection in near every sense of the word.  No matter how unreliable his memories were, they always showed the Monster at night, it most likely wasn’t able to catch him in the day.  He dwelled on that hope, clinging to it like a safety blanket as he trudged through the forest barefoot.  The trail of mushrooms behind him was strange, but he found it comforting that there was something that let him know where he had been and where he was heading.

The sun was high above the hooded trees, eventually pathing a way to someplace that seemed… Hospitable.  For some reason, after everything he’d been through, metal meant safety from whatever it was that felt like it was chasing him.  Despite whatever immemorable terrors he faced, the idea of being out of the woods and surrounded by the smell of hot metal and actual, human people… He felt closer to himself than he ever had, or at least in a long time.

Finn wandered around the junkyard for a while, finding workers that seemed no older than he was, and the sting of pain and pity shot through his chest like a bullet.  He felt connected to these children, as though he had felt something similar in a different life, or maybe even his own.  Even still, none of them talked to him, none of them looked at him.  Was he even real?  Or alive?  What did those creatures do to him that warranted the cold reaction?  The sun happened to be the only thing warming his experience until he saw her, a kind face he almost felt like he knew.  It was strange, as he’d never seen the face before in person, but it felt like he had in dreams.

For some reason, even if he never found his family, he knew he found something similar when he saw her.


	2. Iron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn is certain he found an angel surrounded in metal, but he doesn't have time to worship long.

> “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”   
> ― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

Under the sweltering heat of the high sun reflecting from the reflective metal of the junkyard, a young girl worked.  Her hair tied back and her clothes baggy and oil stained, her hands calloused, rough, and welted from the hot metal under her fingers.  Rey was working in this junkyard for as long as she could remember.  Around nine or so, she was fostered into the family of an auto mechanic, they weren’t kind, but they weren’t evil either.  As a child, she read a lot of fairytales before bed, watching Cinderella while the foster boys were asleep.  She never thought of herself as a lost princess, she never thought she was anything other than a worker, honestly.  All she knew was engines, and metal, grime and oil…  It was nothing she wasn’t used to.

Getting sick under the summer heat was also nothing new to her, and she wretched beside the spilled gasoline before finally returning to work.  Nothing new, nothing strange…  Day in and day out, she did nothing but work until her hands were raw and she collapsed from fatigue.  If she was a lost princess, she could only imagine how upset the king would be to find his daughter working under these conditions.

Nothing new, nothing new… Until she saw someone.  This person was new, dressed strangely and having no characteristics she’d ever seen in the junkyard; and, as she had been taught, she reacted defensively.  The first thing she grabbed was a crowbar, pointing it in his direction to defend herself in case he approach menacingly.  He didn’t look menacing in a real, terrifying way, just in that she’d never seen before.

And, also in a way she’d never seen before, he held up his hands in defeat.  Normally, every other boy in the junkyard would fight.  This boy was obviously never here.  “Who are you?”

Some sort of instinct inside Finn told him he should never be afraid, or at least never show it.  More images of thick black blood flooded through his brain whenever he felt anxious at all.  “My name is Finn, I’m just… I’m just trying to get out of the woods, literally.”  By the look on her face, he figured she didn’t take that figure of speech any other way than literally.  “Listen, do you… Do you know how to get out of here?”

Rey tilted her head, lowering her crowbar slowly as she continued to stare him down.  “The only way out of the junkyard is with a car,” on one end of this situation, she was curious to see what the rest of the city had to offer, what was outside the walls of these huge chain link fences; but, at the same time, she was always told her family was biding their time to get them eventually.  Every time she asked her foster father, he always told her that she would know in time where she was meant to be, and she always assumed it meant her family would be back.  Would they?  She couldn’t be sure, but she couldn’t be sure about this person either.

Speaking of Finn, when she finally snapped back into reality, she noticed he was staring down a large, black raven that had landed on the hood of the car she was fixing.  “What?  What are you looking at?”  She was irritated in the least, not having expected a man to come to her and ask her to run away.  In a way, it was like the Disney movies she watched, but otherwise… She was about to try and get his attention again before he grabbed her by the hand and shouted.  “Run!”

“Let go of me!”  Rey pulled her hand away, determined to stand her ground until the raven cawed and screeched, a human scream layered underneath the avian cry.  Now, that shocked her awake.  Although she would rather not hold his hand, she accidentally squeezed it in fear as she followed.  “We need a car!  Get to that one!”

Finn hadn’t expected the hand squeeze, letting go of her to follow when she took the lead to a car.  It seemed old, collector edition most likely.  Despite being beat up, it looked to be in good condition.  “I can’t drive!”  The realization hit him a little too late, but he was pushed into the passenger seat as he protested.

“I can,”  Rey jumped into the driver’s side, pushing the seat back far enough to be able to hotwire it.  The foster father had all the keys, so if she had any hope of getting out of here, she needed to figure out how to start it herself.  Low and behold, she could.  Just as a cloud of dark birds circled the top of the junkyard, the car sputtered and jolted to life.

No one questioned the two as they drove along the road, the gates even opened for them.  Rey had never seen the gates open before this close, it was almost menacing… But the freedom hit like a breath of fresh air.

Finn, although also relieved by the idea of freedom, had realized he didn’t have any sort of plan in any way.  “Where do we go now?”  He asked, knowing really that all they needed to do was run, but running was hard when they had nowhere to go.

“Home, I guess.”  Rey shrugged, keeping her hands on the steering wheel and her eyes on the road.  “I’ll take you wherever you need to go, then I’ll go back to the junkyard.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LISTEN I TRIED.  
> Finally updated and finally added this second chapter, I'll add more soon. Again, this is a canon divergence more than an au, so it follows a similar plot to TFA for a while, but it will change I promise.


	3. Air

“Can witches really fly on broomstick?”

The question was innocent enough, as Poe Dameron was a relatively innocent and sweet apprentice.  Leia feigned a scoff from her workbench, building a charm with crow feathers and bear teeth.  “Try it,” she knew the playful challenge was always something that encouraged her apprentice to do better, and do great things.

And, damn, did he.  Poe’s eyes lit up more than Leia had seen, rushing up the stairs of the cabin she lived in to search for the nearest broom.  The fat, round tabby that Poe called Bebe bounced up the stairs after him, only to roll down them again when his master rushed back downstairs like a small child on Christmas.  “I can do this,” he beamed, raising an eyebrow at Leia’s little laugh.  Despite her challenging, he was quick to straddle the broomstick the same way he’d seen in movies, trying his hardest to focus on feeling as light as he could, assuming that was the way to do it.  When he finally felt like he was in the right state of mind, feeling some sort of energy pricking like nettles on all his nerves, he kicked his feet off the ground to launch himself as high as he could go…

Only to fall flat on his ass with the stick of the broom cracked in half on the pressure of hitting the floor.  Leia burst into a fit of laughter for the first time she could remember in ages, momentarily breaking her focus on her work.  “You know, when my son tried that, he jumped out a window.”  The memory cut her like a knife, quick to bury any feelings she had as she remembered why she didn’t laugh anymore.  “You need a charmed feather to do it the proper way, willpower alone won’t make you fly.”   _ But it can make you leave _ , she thought,  _ the hunger for strength and the willpower to pursue can ruin you _ .

Poe knew that look, it was the same one his father gave when he asked about his mother.  The look of pain, loss, suffering, the feeling of having something to hold in your arms and it slipping through your fingers without your control.  The feeling of watching your life fade just because of a single person.  His father had told him stories about Leia, the hedgewitch who refused to practice, a friend of his mother’s, and how much she had lost in the course of her life.  She was wise and sad, and it seemed to age her more than she looked physically.  The subject was meant to be avoided, he’d learned over the years.  “It sounds advanced, I’ll ask one day.  For now, do you want to check this potion?  I think some of Bebe’s hair got in it, and that will  _ definitely _ change the outcome.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally updated and introduced Poe and Leia don't hate me


	4. Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn encounters what he had been running from, while he and Rey find yet another thing to escape from.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> emetophobia warning for everyone, sorry about that

Finn and Rey had been trying their hardest to find a place to stop for the night, as Rey had become tired around the witching hour.  It was a weird coincidence that they had to park themselves in the middle of the woods during the hour when the demons are their strongest, and some part of his body knew it was a very bad idea… But it wasn’t like two runaways could find a place to stay that wouldn’t try to return them to where they came from.

Rey seemed to sleep easily, curling herself up in the driver’s seat like the largest kitten Finn had ever seen, but he had a bit of a harder time.  He never experienced much comfort, so that was not the issue.  His issue was something… different.  A painful twist in his gut that felt more like nerves than sickness kept him awake until his eyes could stay open no more.  Despite the pain, despite the discomfort, despite the fear, he finally drifted off to sleep. 

The uncomfortable feeling of being scared to sleep was one he was used to, but the sensation he felt while sleeping was not.  The pain in his stomach twisted more, although he remained asleep.  It felt like someone had poured molten metal down his insides, and it hardened until he couldn’t breathe.  He felt his eyes try to force open, but they remained closed as a familiar voice spoke roughly in his ear. 

_ “Send them a message,” _

Finn had no idea what that meant, feeling nothing but his breath caught in his lungs as what felt like hardened metal melted and burned again.  His insides started to move and work the way they were meant to, although slower, and whatever was in him expelled through his mouth like tar.

He woke with a start, screaming and trying his best to sit up.  His head cracked the roof of the car, and the pain and fear was enough to distract him from the feeling in his stomach that lingered and continued.

Next he heard another thud, turning to see Rey hit her head on the window as she jumped awake in the small car as well.  “What’s the matter with you?!”  she didn’t have much time to scold more before Finn lurched and coughed, pushing his way out of the car to wretch into the dew covered grass.  It was something Rey was familiar with, quick to jump out of the car to gently pat and rub his back while his stomach emptied.  Although, this looked nothing like what she had seen in the junkyard.

On the ground was a pool of some sort of black liquid that had been too thick to be blood, along with black, raven feathers.  Although, some were too big to be a raven.  They were pitch, shiny black, but large enough to be seen on a person.  “My God, what is that?”  Rey’s nose wrinkled, although she continued to try and calm him as he wretched.

Finally, Finn coughed and sputtered the last of whatever ailed him, standing upright and running his hand down his sweating face.  “I… I don’t know,” he stared at the pool on the ground, although jolting again when he heard rustling somewhere else in the woods.

“Who’s there?”

The new voice caused Rey and Finn to collectively jump, rushing back into the car and trying to run away, although the wheels turned and buried in the mud.  “Fuck!”  Finn never knew a reason to use that word until now, pounding on the dashboard as he spun to look around where they were.  “Stay in the car, isn’t there anything we can do?”

Rey’s hands shook on the steering wheel, trying to think of a quick solution before she heard the footsteps growing nearer.  They were large, heavy, obviously a man, and alongside it were even heavier steps on four paws.  Strangely enough, the four paws eventually faded into two, heavier footsteps than the other man.  “There’s an animal with them, what draws away animals?”

“Fire?”  Finn’s first thought was that, although he assumed it to be a horrible idea until he really thought about it.

“ _ Smoke _ ,”  They both said in unison, a smile of understanding spreading across their faces as they rushed out of the car to find something to make a spark.  Sticks and rocks worked fine in the movies, but Finn was no boy scout.  Rey, however, could very easily light a fire with that method, creating a rather large flame as she instructed Finn to feed it with dry leaves and twigs.  Once it was big enough, and creating smoke high enough to blind someone, they both rushed to grab something to fan the fire and move the smoke in another direction.

They both heard a fit of coughing and wheezing, and a guttural, animal wail.  They thought they were safe until the fire died down, watching two silhouettes fan away the smoke from their faces.  Once everything cleared, it was easy to see Rey and Finn standing by the beat up old junker car, a dying flame standing between them and the new figures.

“That’s my fucking car!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is again a bit of a canon divergence so anyone can guess whose car Finn and Rey accidentally highjacked

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to thank Holly Black for existing honestly........
> 
> There will be more chapters and I'm only just starting, a lot of the chapters will tackle different characters and viewpoints but I've got an idea planned out and I think I know where I'm going, eventually. (but I'm open to plot suggestions)
> 
> next chapter title: Iron


End file.
